Blog Assignment #1

For your first blog, analyze the ways that adolescence is depicted in popular culture. You should select ONE piece of media to analyze.

· This can be any type of media, such as a music video, an issue of a magazine, a website, a film, an advertisement, a song, or an episode of a TV show.

· It needs to be something that is produced by, for, or about adolescents (meaning, it can be a movie or TV show depicting one or more teenagers as a main character, a song sung and/or written by a teenager, a website written by or for teens, etc.).

· Finally, the media does NOT have to be something that’s available online, but if it is, please include a link somewhere in your blog.

Assignment:

In approximately 500 words, consider how discourses surrounding adolescence are taken up, reinscribed, challenged, or recreated in the popular text you’ve chosen (for instance, are teenagers’ perspectives and emotions taken seriously or are they regarded as needing to grow up, told they don’t know what they really need/want, etc.?). Your discussion should be centered around the ways that issues of gender, race, class, and/or sexuality are represented in combination with age (for instance, taboos surrounding teenage girls’ sexual pleasure in Mean Girls).

Requirements:

· Write 500 words addressing the prompt above.

· You MUST specifically reference course materials in your response.

o They need to help STRUCTURE your response—they shouldn’t just be add-ons.

o You need to utilize TWO articles or books in your blog.

§ At least ONE must be a course reading. The other can be a course reading (either one we’ve already done or one that’s assigned for later in the quarter) or one that you find on your own

§ Address specific ideas in the article—don’t just make general statements about the article.

· Be sure to follow proper citation guidelines. You may use any style manual you want (MLA, Chicago, APA), but be sure to properly cite your sources!!!

DRAFT: If you want me to look at a draft, please send it to me via email by 7:00 pm on Friday, February 4. I will give you feedback by Sunday, February 6 at 5 pm.

RESPONSE—Post a 100-word response to TWO of your classmates’ blogs. You don’t need to add any new sources, but be sure to add a different perspective than what they have offered. You can either agree or disagree, but offer a substantive contribution (meaning, more than just paraphrasing their entry).